Neoclassical Brass Coffee Table with Black Leather Shelf by Maison Jansen, French Work, Circa 1940

A supremely refined neoclassical coffee table in polished brass, the architectural structure incorporating a lower shelf upholstered in supple black leather with gilt border trim — a combination of materials that stands among the most characteristic and coveted expressions of the Jansen decorative signature. The brass frame, with its classical mouldings and tapering legs, frames the contrast of warm, lustrous metal against the deep matt black of the leather with consummate elegance; the gilt border adds a note of finishing precision that elevates the piece to the level of a luxury bibelot. French work by Maison Jansen, circa 1940.

Maison Jansen — the legendary decorating firm founded in 1880 on the rue Royale — was a pioneer in the sophisticated combination of leather with fine metalwork in furniture and accessories. Under the celebrated direction of Stéphane Boudin (1935–1961), Jansen perfected the marriage of polished brass with richly grained leather in objects ranging from writing desks and library tables to small accessories of exactly this kind. The resulting material language — at once masculine and luxurious, severe and sensual — became one of the most immediately recognisable and widely imitated of all 20th-century French decorative vocabularies, and remains as desirable today as it was in the period of its creation.

This coffee table is a piece of exceptional rarity and distinction. Few objects in the French interior tradition combine daily function and material artistry as effortlessly as a Jansen brass and leather table. Whether placed before a sofa in a drawing room, as an accent in a library, or as the centrepiece of a collector's sitting room, it brings an immediate and unmistakable note of Parisian elegance and historical prestige. Its materials — polished brass, black leather, gilt trim — harmonise with extraordinary versatility to virtually any decorative context.